Pataki names Mantello to lead greenway initiative

Carmella Mantello, executive director of the Hudson River Valley Greenway Communities Council, is being recommended by Gov. George Pataki as the new director of the state Canal Corp.

The Troy, N.Y., resident has been coordinating efforts to enlist communities along the Hudson River into the greenway, an attempt to knit open spaces up and down the river into a recreational and environment asset.

Pataki said Mantello would be put in charge of a new initiative he announced Friday to create a similar greenway linked by the Erie Canal and other waterways in the state barge canal system. The governor said preliminary planning has designated Seneca Falls, the Tonawandas, Rochester, Waterford, Oswego, Whitehall and Little Falls as gateways to an enhanced canal system.

The Canal Corp.'s director's job has essentially never had the responsibilities that Pataki said he would like Mantello to have. Pataki spokesman Kevin Quinn said the director, in addition to taking charge of the Erie Canal Greenway initiative, could eventually assume day-to-day operation of the Canal Corp. as well.

The Canal Corp. is under the purview of the state Thruway Authority, and it became something of an embarrassment to the Pataki administration when it was revealed that a politically connected businessman had been awarded residential development rights on the canal's best properties for $30,000.

That contract was later rescinded. No units were ever built by developer Richard Hutchexns under the contract.

Mantello is a former Republican candidate for mayor in Troy. She has close ties to the Republican majority in the state Senate.

State Assembly Corporations Committee Chairman Richard Brodsky, a Democrat, said Mantello's designation by Pataki was "another political hire." Her appointment as director is subject to approval by the Canal Corp.'s board, which is controlled by Pataki.

But the governor said Mantello has proven herself at the Hudson Greenway and that she will be perfect to run the Erie Canal Greenway initiative.

"I can think of no one more suited or qualified to lead this vital effort than Carmella Mantello," Pataki said Friday.